Is My $20 Book Worth $236?

Last week, the least expensive paperback version of my book on Amazon was $236 even though the cover price is $20. Wow. The Kindle version was reasonably priced at $9.99. But $236? And it wasn’t just one company. There were multiple vendors offering my book in that price range.

What happened?

You may or may not know there are software applications vendors can use to automatically reprice products on Amazon, eBay and other online retail sites. These applications monitor competitors’ prices for products and then adjust the vendor’s prices up or down based on the situation. As examples, check out Appeagle, Feedvisor, and Repriceit.

First thing to know, about a year ago Amazon ran out of stock of my book and the publisher decided against a reprint. Amazon no longer has stock. The only new paperback versions you can buy are the ones in inventory at some smaller resellers.

Even with limited inventory, no sane person would price my book for $236 (even though it is surely worth it.) Instead, every Amazon reseller that has inventory of my book is also using one of these these software repricing applications. The software, without human intervention, slowly worked their price points up to unreasonable levels.

When I saw this, I decided to sell what small inventory I have just so more people can have a reasonably priced book, and because I wanted to watch what happened. I priced the book at $22 plus $3.99 for shipping and handling.

(As a quick aside, it was very easy to set up an Amazon reseller account.)

In the week since I listed my book at $22, the other resellers have started slowly lowering their prices. As of this writing, the next least expensive vendor now sells it for $118.50. It would not surprise me if within a few weeks other resellers have undercut my price. That would actually make me happy both because I was able to manipulate other vendors’ prices and because more people will get the chance to read it.

The lesson: Is it possible to use some algorithm to constantly adjust your prices relative to competition and the market conditions? If so, it is probably a better bet than using the set it and forget it strategy (i.e. never change your price). However, even if you can use automation, you should still monitor the prices for ridiculousness. Although I’d like to believe that the information in my book is worth way more than $236, I doubt anyone buys it at that price.